The Cupboard Series 5: United We Stand ...

Chapter 8

The instant that the flames died down, Albus was out of his seat, his turquoise and silver robes flaring behind him in his haste to cross the room.

Most of the objects that filled the small spindly tables scattered throughout his office were magical in nature, each one having a particular function. Many of them were unique, having been charmed personally by Albus himself, thus making them incredibly rare, and, he was sure, priceless.

It was to one particular table that he focused on, the objects of which were all related to Harry Potter. Many of them were still and silent now, a by-product of Harry being away from either the castle, Privet Drive or from Albus' influence for too long. There were a couple, though, which still functioned

Almost by magic, his wand appeared in his hand and Albus used it to gently tap the side of a silver one that a normal person could be excused from thinking was a teapot. In response to his tap, and the fact that Harry had been in close proximity to it quite recently, smoke began to stream out of its spout and Albus nodded his head.

Where once the smoke that issued from this instrument came in two streams, one a grey so dark that it was almost black, the other a pale, pale green, twisting and turning about each other as the smoke rose, there was now only a single deep green stream of smoke.

"It is as I thought, then," Albus murmured to himself. "Tom's influence has been cleansed from the boy."

A second tap was enough to cause the smoke to peter out and Albus absently made his way back to his chair behind his desk.

The loss of Tom's horcrux from within Harry bore much thinking about – for Albus knew that the boy was, or at least had been, a horcrux. It was a vile, revolting from of magic. That any person would even research the dark magic that focussed on splitting one's very soul was troubling enough but to make one was near unimaginable. But the path to immortality was a lure that had caused more than one wizard throughout the centuries to become ensnared. Indeed, from what little Albus had read, the ancient Egyptian wizards were particularly enamoured with the practice.

But for Tom, who Albus still saw as that small, proud, eleven-year-old boy sitting in the orphanage that he'd grown up in, it seemed that the lure was beyond imagining. This was now confirmation that two of Tom's horcruxes had been destroyed and by the very fact that Tom was still alive, Albus knew that there had to be more.

A glance at the fireplace had Albus contemplating the meeting that had just been had in his office.

Each person who had been there brought unique skills and knowledge to the group and together, Albus knew that they could be formidable. But that very strength needed to be tapered, guided in what was best for the wizarding world. There was a war on and wars inevitably led to conflict and conflict led to deaths. Albus had now seen two magical wars in his lifetime, the first brought about by Gellert, the second by Tom. And in each of them, far, far too many witches, wizards and lines had been snuffed out. Hogwarts itself was a prime example of this. Where once her halls had teemed with near a thousand students and staff, now there were barely four hundred, a loss of more than half.

Ideally, the war that Tom had just declared needed to be ended quickly, and without the loss of too many lives. The question then became, how to do that.

Oh, Albus knew how the war would end, the prophesy told as much. But for the last fifteen years, he was certain that it meant that young Harry Potter must die at Tom's hand, thus eliminating that horcrux, weakening Tom and allowing Albus to step in and finally correct one of his greatest mistakes.

But now, things may have changed. Oh, Albus was certain that the war wouldn't end until Tom and Harry faced off, but the path to victory was less clear.